General chemistry: can someone explain resonance structures to me?

Question

what is it and can u provide an example?

Answer 1

For many molecules, even quite simple ones (e.g. NO2), you find that you can draw a number of different Lewis (dot-and-cross) structures for the molecule.

Unless hugely unlikely forms, these 'structures' that you draw will represent the 'resonance structures' (or 'canonical forms') that have no real existence but which contribute to the actual structure of the molecule.

As the previous poster notes, benzene is a nice example, as the drawing of resonance forms helps you to explain why all the C-C bonds in benzene are the same length and strength.

Answer 2

the representation of a real structure as a weighted average of 2 or more than 2 structures is called as resonance and the different structures are called as resonance structures or canonical forms.

example is that of benzene.this phenomenon is found in molecules which comprise conjugated double bonds(alternative single and double bonds)